LEONARDTOWN (Oct. 24, 2007)  On Tuesday evening at the Leaonard Hall Governmental Center the legislators and commissioners met to hear proposals for new laws from the general public and the board.  Proposal to require equal weight be given to views of citizens as to the St. Mary’s College trustees in decisions regarding future construction at St. Mary’s City. 

Brian Seifert: “I am here tonight for the building program at St. Mary’s City, for the boathouse and 4 weeks ago at a meeting here, we spoke out about what St. Mary’s College is doing.  The offending boathouse, but now also a new 11,000 square foot building, an overpass, etc.   The college president used references to a brutal murder and even Virginia Tech and these references were picked up by local media and some asked where were the college president and the senior building manager of the college when it came time to talk at the town meeting held last week in Ridge.  There were 140 citizens at the meeting and they came to learn what Sen. Dyson thought about this and what their fellow citizens thought about the public arrogance of the college, more than 400 have so far signed the petitions.  We have no staff, no salary and no per diem, we just want change, and what do we want tonight? 
The College and the trustees treat the public in a haughty and dictatorial way.  Not one member of this commission has the right to deal with the college, you are powerless to do anything about mandating citizen participation.  The system is broken and has to be fixed.  Let them eat cake, please don’t let this continue to happen.  There are those who will try to kill this proposal. I suspect you will get calls from the President, the trustees, contractors, contributors to the college, I know these things because it was my business to be aware of the se things when I was a federal employee. 
Del. Bohanan works closely with Steny Hoyer and he is on the board of Trustees, can we really expect John to take sides when he has to deal with Steny.  Sure, I think that we can expect John and Steny to take the side of the citizens.  We need them to join Sen. Dyson in the consistent way he has supported our position, we need a deep and meaningful way in the college manages construction process.”

St. Mary’s College President Maggie O’Brien: “Rather than responding to that, I will say that the college has always had a good neighbor policy, with programs, concerts, scholarships, we oppose this recommendation, we have always had a strong relationship, almost all of the campus is within the critical area commission. 

Sen. Roy Dyson: “What does it hurt to involve the community more, we have to agree that this whole situation could have been handled much better.  When they had the Science center, we know the Board of Trustees made a decision and what would it hurt to bring the community in to communicate with the college.  I have a memo here from the college of Southern Maryland, they just want an avenue of communication here, it has broken down, you wouldn’t be here tonight if there was a way to communicate their concerns here, what they saw was once the outreach started, it was to get the project done as fast as possible.

Maggie O’Brien:  “In August when we found out that there was a problem with community we got the 4c’s and in 1994 we had a community meeting and no one came to the meeting.  This does not violate any historic land rules. We made this public over and over and over again.  We have met every single permit; the college has been cooperative with the community.  Maybe we are not met with a great deal of appreciation and we do try very hard.

Del. Anthony O’Donnell, (R. Lusby), who is the House Minority Leader, in a swipe at Dyson, brought out that the members of the board of trustees are appointed by the governor to six year terms with the advise and consent of the State Senate, meaning that Dyson has a review over who is appointed.  “I wanted to remind myself of how the board is comprised, Congressman Hoyer is a member, and some of those members are here, who appoints them to the board, they are six year terms and they are renewable, approved by the Maryland Senate.”

Cindy Royals: “I am a citizen of St. Mary’s County and I am a board of trustees member and we of the college have listened to many criticisms and I want to go on record for the defense of the college,, we have followed all of the permits process as proscribed by law. One of the facts about this building is that is a very green building, and is very environmentally friendly; the Maryland Historic Trust said that it is compatible with the historic rules.  We devised a process and we had two open forums with 100 persons taking part, we accepted the community members, they were not handpicked to rubber stamp the plans.”

Peg Duchesne:  “I am president of the Alumni Association,  the college is an institution committed to the community and the hard work of J. Frank Raley and William Donald Schaefer have kept the college independent, almost half of the trustees live in Southern Maryland or maintain residences here.”   

Mike O’Brien: “I am chairman of the building and grounds committee of the board of trustees and I can tell you that having seen it constructed it had more of impact on me than it did in the planning process, the door is not closed, it is inappropriate to have people demand it be removed, it is possible that it be relocated. The objections to this came after the building was built. We would like to have a process for the community to get involved in earlier stages of planning.

Tom Daugherty: “I am an alumni of the college back when it was a two year college, the college’s policy on tuition has been raised as another issue, what was left out of the argument is that the other institutions received a hefty additional appropriations equal to what they would have gotten if they had increased the tuition, and we did not.   We find it troublesome that those who are in command of those facts would chose to ignore that information. Citizen input would be given equal weight to that of the board of trustees and we find that is in direct contradiction to the statutory authority of the college.  The college fully supports the involvement of the public, I ask that you who represent us, represent all of us, not just the most vocal.”

Robert Nessiean: “I live across from the college and I appreciate everyone being here, in the years I have lived here, I don’t think I have more respect that I have to look at the boathouse every day and it is an abomination to St. Mary’s City and anybody who knows anything about St. Mary’s City and knows that this is a pristine river, what hey are building, the river center is a building which is approximately four times the size of the boathouse, it contains about 60 percent functions which have no purpose on the water, banquet rooms, offices, that don’t have to be on the water, why can’t they put it back further, the alumni building, why do they have to intrude on historic St. Mary’s City, they need to give what they are doing some serious thought.  It is irreparable what they are doing.”

Gladys Segal:  “I would have hoped that these people would have attended the town meeting and listen to the people and to Senator Dyson.  I question the number of people who sat on the ad hoc committee, they told me that they were limited to what they could discuss, the river center building, I read a little note in the paper that they have already violated the Critical Area Commission, the stormwater is running off, but they are giving flexibility to the college, if I had polluted the river, I would have been told the stop construction immediately, I tell you gentlemen there is something wrong there, I have been here since 1951 and I have never before opposed anything at St. Mary’s College, I told everyone, parents who came down here and were appalled at the security, I don’t want to see a long pier, a $2 million bridge and I thank Sen. Dyson for all you are doing.”

Don Beck: “I just have a few remarks, down the hall and around the corner is a community heritage award and it says explore and enjoy our heritage, we are destroying our heritage.  What’s the first thing you see, the rowing center, what will be the last thing you see, the rowing center.  I was next door at a social function and he told me that he said we were blindsided by this, and then I saw later that he was on the board of trustees.   This all could have been a public notice, but we don’t have to do it, Roy Dyson summed it completely when he said you may be legally correct but you are morally wrong.  What does the Freedom of Conscience statute with his arms open looking out over the river, now what does he see? Follow the money, the path is with the donors."

Sen. Dyson: “I think it is very information for a liberal arts college to not involve the community in an important decision to engage the community, yes I did say, legally correct, but morally wrong, I went to the Attorney General, but now everyone in this county can look at the boathouse and say look what the college did, when they have a critical area issue.  This could have been resolved; there is ample evidence from the Science Building fiasco. They did try to involve the community and if that had been maintained, we would not have had this problem.”